Friday night. Just getting dusk. Came in from the buoy 24 out by the channel drifiting not catching a thing. Got to Grassy threw out a drfit rig, crawler, white blade and pink beads, and ugh. thought I had a snag. Kept reeling in as though it was loaded down with weeds, then suddenly WHAM it started taking line out. Then I saw it jump and thought I had caught the devil. Here is where I need the help, it had the shape of a pike (you know fin loactaion and such) but was bigger than any I had ever seen. It's mouth was huge. It was brown in color and I measured the side of the boat that it came up on (twice it came to the side and just sat there looking at me for a few) and the best I can tell it was about 44 inches. I have nothing big enough to land a fish that big so on its second time at the boat I grabbed a large screwdriver thinking I could knock it out and get it into the boat. Fat chance, I swear it laughed at me, shook its head broke the line and swam away. Was this indeed a musky? Sure would like to have landed it to get it up on my wall. What a fish!!!!!!!
Musky by Grassy?
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St.Clair ROCKS!!
Mac
Thank you Mac. I just get excited I guess. That was without a doubt the biggest Lake St. Clair fish I have ever seen let alone hooked and almost landed. I will take your and Bob's advice and wait for the bigger on. (who am I fooling I am 51 years old been fishing for many years and never have I seen anything like that fish. What and experience....)
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Mac
Sounds like you had a fun experience. One comment I have is that you might want to take a little time and research how to handle big pike and musky. You estimated your fish at 44 inches which is barely legal and means if you over estimated even a little bit, then you were hitting a non legal fish on the head with a screwdriver trying to knock it out. I hope this is not your approach to any fish that is too big for you to handle because LSC has many. I suggest you learn how to safely release a fish of that size before you head out next time. Maybe some of the regular Musky fisherman on this board can give some advice. I assume you were planning on keeping it but I would still first land the fish, then measure it, then if it's legal and you want to keep it you may do as you wish with it. A cradle works very well on large fish. You can make one pretty easy for not much money. Also, I am a bass fisherman and can very easily estimate the weight and length of a bass because I have done for a long time. However, unless you regularly catch big pike and musky it is very hard to produce an accurate estimate sometimes. I'm not saying you were wrong but I remember catching my first pike over 35 inches. I swore it was well over 40 inches until I measured it at 36. I almost wished it had gotten off so it would still have been over 40 in my heart
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. Good luck on your next giant, I hope you get a wall hanger.
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h2o
Thank you for the advice Marcus. I guess in the heat of the moment overestimation is the norm. It felt like I fought that monster for 15 mins. but in retrospect it was probably not more that a couple of mins. Also my guess on length was just that, using my rod as a guide. This continues to be a great site for learning about our wonderful lake and the opportunities it provides all of us if we manage it correctly. Thank you all for the insight.
QUOTE(Marcus @ Aug 25 2003, 01:43 PM)Sounds like you had a fun experience. One comment I have is that you might want to take a little time and research how to handle big pike and musky. You estimated your fish at 44 inches which is barely legal and means if you over estimated even a little bit, then you were hitting a non legal fish on the head with a screwdriver trying to knock it out. I hope this is not your approach to any fish that is too big for you to handle because LSC has many. I suggest you learn how to safely release a fish of that size before you head out next time. Maybe some of the regular Musky fisherman on this board can give some advice. I assume you were planning on keeping it but I would still first land the fish, then measure it, then if it's legal and you want to keep it you may do as you wish with it. A cradle works very well on large fish. You can make one pretty easy for not much money. Also, I am a bass fisherman and can very easily estimate the weight and length of a bass because I have done for a long time. However, unless you regularly catch big pike and musky it is very hard to produce an accurate estimate sometimes. I'm not saying you were wrong but I remember catching my first pike over 35 inches. I swore it was well over 40 inches until I measured it at 36. I almost wished it had gotten off so it would still have been over 40 in my heart
![]()
. Good luck on your next giant, I hope you get a wall hanger.
MARCUS: Try this for weight estimates. Of course these are estimates. Bob may have a different way but this should be fairly close.
Length/Thin Build Long Head/Average Build Thick Build/Blunt Head
36 9-10 Lbs. 12 Lbs. 14-15 Lbs.
40 12-14 Lbs. 16-17 Lbs. 19-20 Lbs.
42 15-17 Lbs. 19-20 Lbs. 23-25 Lbs.
45 19-21 Lbs. 23-25 Lbs. 28-30 Lbs.
48 22-24 Lbs. 29-31 Lbs. 33-36 Lbs.
50 24-27 Lbs. 32-35 Lbs. 38-45 Lbs.
52 28-31 Lbs. 36-39 Lbs. 43-50 Lbs.
55 33-38 Lbs. 42-45 Lbs. 47-55 Lbs.
58 40-45 Lbs. 49-55 Lbs. 58-65 Lbs.
MARCUS: Try this for weight estimates. Of course these are estimates. Bob may have a different way but this should be fairly close.
Length/Thin Build Long Head/Average Build Thick Build/Blunt Head
36 9-10 Lbs. 12 Lbs. 14-15 Lbs.
40 12-14 Lbs. 16-17 Lbs. 19-20 Lbs.
42 15-17 Lbs. 19-20 Lbs. 23-25 Lbs.
45 19-21 Lbs. 23-25 Lbs. 28-30 Lbs.
48 22-24 Lbs. 29-31 Lbs. 33-36 Lbs.
50 24-27 Lbs. 32-35 Lbs. 38-45 Lbs.
52 28-31 Lbs. 36-39 Lbs. 43-50 Lbs.
55 33-38 Lbs. 42-45 Lbs. 47-55 Lbs.
58 40-45 Lbs. 49-55 Lbs. 58-65 Lbs.
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Breakaway,
Another thing about muskies is that if you had managed to get it into your boat you may then wish that you hadn't. I have seen muskies taken into a boat then literally destroying tackle and other things. I had one that Carpfisher caught on my boat that got away from him when he brought it into the boat and it went nuts. The brute ended up in the motor well and bit a hole in my outboard motor's gas line. I felt lucky that that was all he did. They are one powerful fish. The cradle is a great way to have some control over them as well as protecting them from harming themselves or you or your boat.
Great story,
Jim
Another thing about muskies is that if you had managed to get it into your boat you may then wish that you hadn't. I have seen muskies taken into a boat then literally destroying tackle and other things. I had one that Carpfisher caught on my boat that got away from him when he brought it into the boat and it went nuts. The brute ended up in the motor well and bit a hole in my outboard motor's gas line. I felt lucky that that was all he did. They are one powerful fish. The cradle is a great way to have some control over them as well as protecting them from harming themselves or you or your boat.
Great story,
Jim
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